Cherry Blossoms
by Phoenix To Flame
Summary: Kazahaya had a job just for him. Rikuo tagged along anyway. The mysterious stranger under the cherry blossoms left Rikuo with a sense that not all dangers meant to cause harm.
1. Chapter 1

This is currently planned as a three part, but I don't know if it will be enough for a whole three parts. Otherwise, it's just for fun.

Although CLAMP has done fanstuff, that's been doujinshi, and not of their own work. I think this makes the point clear.

* * *

><p>"<em>Why do you think the cherry blossoms bloom so beautifully each year?<em>

_Sakurazuka Seishirou – Tokyo Babylon, Volume 1.5 – Destiny_

* * *

><p>Spring had heralded its appearance with a brilliant array of <em>sakura, <em>filling the air with its potent scent. Ueno Park was filled with visitors admiring the soft pink blossoms, picnicking under the trees.

But Himura Rikuo was not there for simply viewing the flowers, no. He, instead, was accompanying his coworker on a job initially meant for Kazahaya alone, to the other man's dismay and their boss's amusement.

"_Kudo-kun, I have a job for you!" As usual, Ka__k__ei's voice was not loud, but carried easily through the store. Rikuo watched Kazahaya carefully set down his box before going over._

"_What is it, Kakei-san?" he asked eagerly, obviously hoping that it would not be as..._interesting _a task as the one that involved school uniforms and his immense embarrassment._

_The memory of it still made him smirk, much to his continued amusement and Kazahaya's noise whenever he was caught doing it._

"_I need you to go to Ueno Park and bring me a branch of cherry blossoms." Kakei had one of those Cheshire Cat grins that promised it would not be as easy a task as it sounded. "But not just any branch that you could take from any tree. It must be a branch from a tree that never stops blooming."_

_Rikuo hadn't expected that, and hadn't even heard of an ever blooming tree even that was coniferous, and certainly not a cherry tree, and he expected Kazahaya's cheerful demeanor to wilt and collapse. But to Rikuo's continued (unseen) surprise, his grin only grew more pleased. "Of course Kakei-san. I was hoping for a chance to see him again anyway!"_

_Kakei's smile was as close to honest and kind as Rikuo had ever seen it before a job. "If you leave right now, you may even have more time to talk."_

_Rikuo found himself frowning, both at Kazahaya's exuberance in removing his apron, and at the fact that Kakei hadn't said anything about his also being involved. The store bell rang out brightly as Kazahaya left at one of his cheerful strides, and he fought with himself for the space of a minute before walking over to talk. _

"_Why isn't it a two person job?"_

_Kakei had that cat smile up again, the one that promised great terror and horror for any hapless person caught by it. Rikuo liked to think he wasn't one of them. "Are you feeling jealous of Kudo-kun have someone else who he'd be excited to see?"_

_He was _not _affected by that comment, he swore to himself. Nevertheless, his jaw ached suddenly from finding his teeth clenched together. "You know his tendency to get involved in something over his head."_

_Kakei only chuckled in reply to that. "I assure you he will be fine. Perhaps even safer than when he is with you."_

_Rikuo wasn't certain he liked the implications of _that _comment. But Kakei brushed off any acknowledgement of baiting him. "If you want to go along, I won't stop you. But you won't receive any payment for it."_

_Rikuo barely remembered to remove his own apron before exiting the store, and as such, didn't comprehend Kakei's last comment. "Not everything that is dangerous intends harm, nor do they choose to inflict it on those who can't fight back, and don't deserve it."_

_It had only taken him about the span of a block to catch up with Kazahaya, and not even a second before he was hissing and spitting like a cat scared out of its wits. "Damn it, Rikuo! I am perfectly capable of _walking _somewhere without needing you to be there!"_

_And then it wasn't hard at all to find his smirk again. "I don't know about that, you are pretty accident-prone."_

_Kazahaya growled in his throat, but turned his back to him indignantly instead. "Are you getting paid for stalking me?" was the snarled reply._

"_No." And he watched some of the tension drain away from the other man's shoulders, although there was still a lot of indignant annoyance there._

_Kazahaya turned back around to face him, his scowl showing that he was still displeased with him. "Fine, but you aren't scaring him off by glaring." And he returned to walking, each stride punctuated by a hard thump as he stomped his way to Ueno Park._

_Rikuo's smirk felt oddly close to a smile._

And with only a small (compared to usual) amount of arguing that was less frustrated and possibly bordering on playful, they had arrived at the park, to find it packed with school kids, young couples, older couples, friends and all sorts of other kinds of people crowding up the entire ground space, talking and laughing and generally adding a strangely pleasant buzz to the air.

Kazahaya had been part of the buzz at first, barely able to muster up his usual scowl for Rikuo, but as they walking on the paths lined with violently pink flowers, his face took on that oddly melancholy look.

The one he got right after any of the times he had seen Tsukiko through Rikuo's memories.

"Hey." It wasn't breaking a true silence, not with all the humans around in their loud, but well-meaning demeanors and actions, but there was a silence that was interrupted nevertheless. That dark look on Kazahaya's face melted into his usual intriguing mix between a scowl and a sneer. "Who are we meeting in the middle of this park, and why couldn't we meet them elsewhere?"

Kazahaya huffed animatedly through his nose, arms crossed firmly against the lower part of his torso, but he deigned himself to answer with a vague semblance of politeness. "I call him Sakura-san, since true names are a dangerous thing to give away among those like us."

The meaning behind those words was not missed, and Rikuo felt that twitchy nerve of an idea that this wasn't as safe as it seemed, and he was right to come along.

"So he calls me by a different name, and I will hit you if you laugh." Kazahaya added, "Or call me by my name, or give away yours. He's nice, but he'd rather not know."

Rikuo scowled even more as they stopped at a fork in the sidewalk and Kazahaya took a moment to deliberate on which one. "So why do you talk to him even?"

Kazahaya deliberately kept his face turned away, it seemed. "He's lonely, and kind. He would have done more when I...left, if his job didn't make it dangerous to share more than a few minutes of his life with anyone."

And that was more confusing than what he had originally thought of this 'Sakura-san', and raised his hackles even more. As Kazahaya strode off down the left branch, he found himself walking closer than was strictly necessary, to his companion's annoyance and the soft giggles of a gaggle of teenage girls watching them.

"Do you _have _to stand that close?" he growled softly, enough that the spectators probably couldn't hear.

"You don't actually have a problem with it, do you?" Rikuo dodged the question by way of another, as Kazahaya took a fork in the road to the right this time, and the ground itself became more layered with petals.

Kazahaya groaned in frustration, but did nothing to move away from him, and a very tiny, traitorous part of him did something like thrusting a fist up in triumph.

Kazahaya took a second right, and another left, and then stopped in front of a larger than usual tree, absolutely _coated_ in the blossoms it seemed. His eyes lidded over as he stepped forwards to touch the trunk. "Are you his tree?" Rikuo heard him mutter softly as he laid his hands on the rough bark. He stepped forwards just in time to catch him as Kazahaya's eyes shot open wide and he collapsed.

A moment passed with several odd and worried looks from passing strangers before his eyes fluttered open again and he immediately sprang up from their slightly awkward position, face flushed. "You don't have to do that!" He yelled, the tone more embarrassment than frustration. "In fact, _don't_. I can handle falling on the ground just fine."

Rikuo ignored this statement, not ever planning on listening to it. "Is that the tree you were looking for?"

Kazahaya stopped his yelling and his scowl was replaced by a thoughtful look. "Yes, it was. But I haven't gotten that memory from it before..." he trailed off, teeth absentmindedly pulling at his lower lip in thought.

"What did you see?"

Kazahaya's face held not just thoughtfulness, but a tinge of uneasiness as well. "Just two people talking under a tree. One was a teenager about our age, the other was a child."

Rikuo got the feeling that he wasn't telling the whole truth, but was prevented from prying by a duo of young women who suddenly seemed to feel the need to make sure that Kazahaya was sure he was alright, and tag-teamed up on him in a way that left him fully amused and not willing to help out his coworker at all.

Kazahaya explained things with a slight laugh, a kind word or two, and an explanation that, while probably not true, seemed to make sense to them, and they left with a couple of kind words of farewell, and a complement to Rikuo for being 'such a caring boyfriend' that left Kazahaya's smile threatening to become much more villainous and his eye twitching slightly.

Rikuo eschewed their usual banter in favor of casting a critical eye around their surroundings. "Where is this Sakura-san, and why is he taking so long?"

Kazahaya bit down on his annoyance, glancing around the area as well. "I'm not sure, I thought he'd be here by now.

The air shivered visibly, and he caught Kazahaya's arm, pulling him behind as cherry blossoms, clinging to the breezes drifted into the shape of a human, before scattering to reveal a man dressed all in black but for the color of his skin, and the mismatched eyes he opened slowly.

Green and gold glinted in annoyance before almost switching over to a much kinder glance. "Hello, Hana-san."

And despite his very strong feelings of danger and distrust of this stranger, Rikuo found himself wanting to laugh.

* * *

><p>"<em>It's because of the corpse."<em>


	2. Chapter 2

Not quite as long as the first one, but pretty close. I might actually manage to finish this story!

* * *

><p><em>"You see, the flowers on cherry trees used to be white. Pure white, like snow.<em>

_"So how do you think that they got that pale crimson shade?"_

_Seishirou Sakurazuka - Tokyo Babylon, Volume 1.5 - Destiny_

* * *

><p>Kazahaya was grinning at the man, seemingly unfazed by his nickname. "Hello Sakura-san!" he greeted excitedly, coming back out from behind Rikuo to his displeasure.<p>

The man smiled brightly at him. "You are doing well Hana-san?" he asked with the formality normally found in older clans. Rikuo noted with interest that neither of them made any effort to touch each other. With Kazahaya's powers, that could be reasoned out, but there was no apparent purpose for the other man to shy from contact. "And your friend is?" the man asked, that cold glitter going back into those eerily mismatched eyes again, for the ounce of a second.

Kazahaya looked at him for a minute, and mouthed _'Be careful with your choice.'_

That kind of advice seemed obvious. "If everyone's going by flower names, I'll be Riku." he said with conviction.

The glare that Kazahaya shot him did not affect him, not one bit. 'Sakura' laughed, turning away from them. "You two do know each other quite well." The statement served to fluster Kazahaya into some odd mixture of stuttering and flailing, but Rikuo noticed that it was really quite ambiguous to what meaning was behind it.

His estimation of the other man dropped down.

Kazahaya definitely did not have the same issues, or mistrust, as he managed to pull himself together and start talking to the other man animatedly. On any other occasion, he would have taken the time to watch the boy in his brighter moments. But he instead took the time to scrutinize the man.

He could be considered quite pretty, with an almost chalk-white complexion and deep black hair that went well with the black he wore, and his oddly colored eyes. But there was a sense of danger behind it, even if it was well concealed. He looked like a ghost that had been granted life.

"And did you have a reason to seek me out?" he heard 'Sakura' ask, the first hint of something not faked within his tone. "Besides wanting to see me, of course."

Kazahaya smiled sheepishly, shifting from one foot to the other. "Ah, well..Kake-my boss-san asked me if..." he trailed off awkwardly.

Rikuo stepped up to stand right behind him and the other man nodded in encouragement. "He asked me if I would get a branch from a cherry tree that bloomed even out of season." Kazahaya finished in a rush, looking saddened.

But the man laughed, and Rikuo could feel that he had used to be a much more genuine person with the sound of it. "An ever-blooming cherry tree." he repeated with a calm tone. "I would wonder how your boss found out about it. But you talk of him as if he has more contact with the second world than most."

Kazahaya laughed too, "He seems to _be_ like that half the time! Always saying things like a prophet and finding the supernatural in everything."

Rikuo watched an interesting look pass over the other man's face. Pain? Regret? Resentment? Something dark like that. But he shook it off easily and looked at Rikuo intently. "Hana-san, if you would like a branch from my tree, I will require the help of your friend."

Rikuo figured he could talk for himself in this situation. "What kind of 'help' it is that you need?" he asked, making sure there was as much skepticism in his voice as possible.

Sakura looked at him, and Rikuo had the feeling that he was looking deeper into him than just at his body. "You have the power to...rend objects to pieces. I cannot break my branches, not without hurting myself. So I need you to break it."

Rikuo wasn't sure which disturbed him more; the fact that Sakura knew what he could do without being told, or that he talked like he was part of the tree itself. "This had better not be a trick."

The other man smiled disarmingly and he didn't believe it at all. "I'm sorry, but there isn't another way to grant this request easily." He took hold of one of the thinner branches of the tree they all stood beneath, and pulled it down gently, not even hard enough to dislodge any of the flowers. "If you would, please, Riku-san."

Rikuo stepped forwards just enough to lay his hand over the branch. And concentrated on the seams of the wood until it broke with a loud crack cleanly, leaving the branch itself plus several offshoots practically coated in the fragile flowers. He took it cautiously, looking over the flowers and wood till he was satisfied it was not an immediate danger.

The man flinched and shook the hand that had been holding the tree as if it had gone numb. "Apparently it still stings anyway." he explained to Kazahaya, who didn't look like he entirely believed him.

Well score one for Kazahaya finally noticing that he didn't tell the whole truth at all. Or at least most of the time, that greeting had sounded pretty genuine. "What do we need to do with it to keep it blooming?" he asked, trying to keep the snapped edge from touching bare skin for some reason, an instinct.

Sakura seemed to pull together. "Here, let me see it." he gestured at the branch.

Rikuo held it forwards as the man pulled off his right glove finger by finger, suppressing a shudder at the blank skin underneath, yet another mystery. Then he bit the skin of his thumb till it broke and bled, a drop spilling over onto the branch, that shivered in his hands suddenly.

Rikuo would have dropped it if it weren't for remembering Kakei's methods of punishment when jobs were not followed up on. But a tree that _drank_ blood was something to be disturbed by. Kazahaya's gasp, of horror, or surprise, or sympathy, or something at least was a small balm to his concealed horror. He remembered stories of a family that fed a tree on blood...and fed it on the blood of humans.

The suspision returned in full force.

Yet the man seemed unconcerned by the fact that he had just invoked blood magic, putting the glove back on with apparent relief, heedless of the bleeding of his finger. "Sorry for that, it will keep the branch alive and flowering for a year. After that, I cannot say how it will behave, we have never given away a branch before."

Kazahaya smiled palely. "Thank you Sakura-san."

The other man's smile was wan. "I'm afraid I am needed elsewhere now. Will you both be alright from here on out?" he asked, and there was concern in there. Rikuo wasn't ready to trust him, or even lower his suspicion of this man who appeared from nowhere, lied with his feelings although the words were true, talked like he was part of a tree and then fed the tree with his blood, then talked as if he was two people.

But Kazahaya was being polite, and saying farewell more quietly than usual. "Be careful, Sakura-san."

He smiled bitterly, and there was no other way to describe that look on his face. "I could be more careless than anyone in this world and I would survive it. But I wish you the same sentiment."

Rikuo stared at him in surprise. The other man let the smile drop, and he seemed so much older, yet nothing in his face changed. "Farewell, Hana-san, Riku-san."

And then the air flickered and bent around them, and he flaked into cherry blossoms somehow, all the black shifting to that impossible shade of pink. When the last petals faded, the sense of wrongness in the air faded.

It might have been a dream but for the damned branch he held very, very gingerly.

Kazahaya shuddered, but actually smiled uneasily at him. "He's always like that. He's a very sad person, he wouldn't hurt us."

Rikuo wasn't certain that he thought the same of that man, and he had a sneaking thought that he could guess _why_ he wouldn't touch him, or say his name.

"We should get this thing back to Kakei before he docks your pay." he said, brandishing the stick near Kazahaya's face, and snorting when he flinched back.

"Don't wave blood drinking branches in my face you idiot!" he yelled as Rikuo started walking, and he felt like if Kazahaya yelled at him enough, he might feel a little less annoyed with the world and its people that wouldn't tell the truth.

* * *

><p><em>"It's because they drink the blood from the corpse underneath the tree."<em>

* * *

><p>Only one more part to go!<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

I know I just finished and uploaded the previous chapter only several hours ago, but I was not finished working on this, apparently, and so here we are at the conclusion and the actual scene that first popped into my head when I was writing this.

* * *

><p><em>"But, doesn't that hurt the person underneath the tree?"<em>

_"Look, I'll cut a deal with you. If ever we meet again..."_

_Subaru Sumeragi and Seishirou Sakurazuka - Tokyo Babylon, Volume 1.5 - Destiny_

* * *

><p>Kakei had been his usual enigmatic self, taking the branch with a catlike smile and shooing Kazahaya off to put away his payment. True to word, he didn't pay Rikuo, but he didn't care about that. He wanted to talk, in the method that more resembled interrogation.<p>

And yet, Kakei seemed to not notice at all, dodging every attempt that he made to talk as they finished out the afternoon at the store. If he didn't know better, he would have said it was so that no one would interrupt them.

But Kakei wasn't usually that caring, was he?

The store had seen a rush of teenage girls scarcely ten minutes before closing time, giggling and chattering to each other in their flocks. It had taken Saiga's bulk and Kakei's devilish smirk before they all were sheparded out. Saiga and Kakei did their odd staring thing, where it was like they had entire conversations without speaking, before Saiga grabbed at Kazahaya playfully, chasing him off god knows where.

"They'll be back later." Kakei said with a satisfied grin. He leaned against the counter as Rikuo began to fix the overrighted display stands that had inevitably gotten so out of order over the course of the day. The blood-sucking vampire branch sat unassumingly in a tray, along with a duo of rocks and two tall reeds. "You wanted to ask why I was willing to send out Kudo-kun alone if he was going to meet the Sakurazukamori, right?"

Rikuo almost dropped the box of lipstick he was putting back in order. "He was actually the _Sakurazukamori_?" He was aware that Kakei had probalby done that on purpose, but most of him was left to startled gaping silence.

Kakei brushed one of the blossoms, watching it tremble and shiver at the delicate touch. "Of course. I would have assumed you'd learned enough already from hearing about 1999?"

He struggled to compose himself, cursing when he realized he had crushed a tube of "Midnight Raspberry" and that not only was his hand now covered in plastic and lipstick, but that it was probably coming out of his pay. "Heard enough to know that the clan existed without a doubt, yes. Heard enough to know exactly who he was, no."

Kakei had that look that said he knew _much_ more than he was going to speak of. "Sumeragi-san is the balance for all the magic of this world. He is both the light and the dark. And as such, he is a very shattered induvidual."

"That's not an explanation as to why _Kazahaya_ knows him, or is safe around him." He wanted so badly to shout with anger, to break more than the one tube. But he knew that Tsukiko would be sad to know that he had lost that much control of his temper. "Or why you needed the branch."

Kakei raised a hand for his silence. "I will explain the rest of what is mine to explain if you will be quiet." The usual smirk had disappeared, and was replaced by a solemnity. "As the Sakurazukamori, yes he is obligated to kill, both to protect Japan and to feed the tree that hosts the souls of their victims. But, as the leader of the Sumeragi, he is also obligated to protect the people from that of the second world, including , where his predessesors killed without regard, he leaves alive those who have done nothing wrong. It is the last thing he can hold onto."

He brushed the broken plastic into a garbage bag, already waiting to hold the sweepings and other litter of the day. "So Kazahaya is safe because he won't kill without reason? Not killing without reason does not mean he's safe."

Kakei had another one of those enigmatic smiles on his face. "You could say the same thing for you and your gift. Just because you do not use it without reason does not make you safe. You could, perhaps just as easily, kill Kazahaya-kun as Sumeragi-san could do it. And you would have about the same amount of reason behind it."

One of the lightbulbs overhead broke with a snap. Kakei sighed. "I know that the idea is upsetting, but I would appriciate it if you would not break anything else in my store. It does cost money to replace it and I would have to draw it out of your paycheck."

Rikuo forced himself to breathe, to calm down. "There is a difference there, it isn't the same" '_I wouldn't kill Kazahaya, no matter how easy it would be.'_

Kakei ran a finger down one of the reeds in the ikebana. "At its deepest form, it is. What is different, is what lines you two would be willing to cross for someone you cared about." He was looking beyond the arrangement, at something far away, perhaps long ago. "For some people, that farthest line is to be willing to die, to give up that most precious gift we are ever given. For others, that farthest line, is to kill. To steal life from others to prolong that of their own or their most precious."

The lines of lipstick looked uneven without the Midnight Raspberry tube he'd broken. He shifted one of the less popular types into the empty hole.

"Sumeragi-san has not had a happy life, but I wish him a better next time around." Kakei said with some finality to the conversation. "Kudo-kun can finish restocking for the morning if you need to go break something else."

Rikuo sighed, putting the lipstick display back where it belonged. "I can handle it."

Kakei chuckled lightly. "Yes, I'm sure that you can. But I think I'll send Kudo-kun back out anyway, since it'll make the tasks go easier."

He had a feeling that Kakei was more than likely trying to do the thing where they yelled at each other till they felt better again. After the interesting turns this afternoon had taken, that would actually be kind of nice.

Kakei was drifting off to the back room when Rikuo remembered what else he wanted to ask him. "What did you want the branch for, anyway?"

And that damn cheshire smirk was back in full force. "Don't you think that it makes a lovely display up at the counter?" And he vanished into the other space.

Rikuo found himself snorting in amusement. _'Never tell the truth when you can dodge it just as well?'_

Then Kazahaya was stomping into the room again, holding a box that seemed to have a mishmash of everything that they'd run out of and looking distinctly frustrated. "How did you break a _lightbulb_? Wait, never mind! Don't answer that, I don't want to know!"

And then he was grinning, and he could put away the ideas that didn't really match up with his concept of the world till another day, and take this time to tease Kazahaya into those brilliant blushes.

* * *

><p><em>But today, I will let you go...<em>

* * *

><p>I'm really, <em>really<em> happy with myself right now. Because even if it's short, and even if no one ever reads it, I actually finished something that was multiple chapters, without being ashamed of it.


End file.
